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Army Guard and FBI sign up for Peerless IP net

By Susan M. Menke

Oct 23, 2003

Two security-conscious agencies are signing on to Sprint Corp.'s Peerless IP fiber network, which operates independently of the public Internet.

The FBI has signed a 36-month contract of undisclosed value for Sprint's secure virtual private network services to 59 sites for the Digital Collection System Network, which caused controversy under a previous name, Carnivore.

DCSNet's purpose is surveillance of phone call detail and content traced by law enforcement. Carnivore would have extended surveillance to e-mail communications.

Sprint's government systems division in Herndon, Va., also will migrate the Army National Guard's asynchronous transfer mode network to Peerless IP, under a GuardNet contract valued at $18 million the first year.

It includes IP services plus IP routing technology from Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and videoconferencing equipment from Tandberg of New York.